Blog

I cut and dried oregano, basil, stevia (this is my first time successfully growing stevia, and it’s still small), and lemon verbena from the garden to dry. I planted several more lemon verbena plants this year, and they are growing better than ever. I have found that it is such a mild herb that I…

We received some rain! I was able to turn off my irrigation for the next day. Several people have messaged me about the flooding in Las Vegas. I always feel like this is such overhyped news. It so rarely rains here that if it does, it makes national news. There was some flash flooding that…

I sewed a new apron for myself with fabric that I had purchased 6 years ago. I mended holes in a pair of pants (trousers) and a pair of jeans for my son. I picked figs, peaches, grapes, and tomatoes from the garden. I cut parsley and green onions from the garden. I froze 26…

I harvested tomatoes, an Armenian cucumber, grapes, figs, peaches, and a Kaho watermelon from the garden this past week. I saved the seeds from the watermelon to plant again next year. I also planted some of them in the garden this morning. I removed squash bugs by hand from the garden and dropped them into…

I harvested tomatoes, parsley, grapes, and green onions from my garden. One of my tomato plants, where the tomatoes were just ripening, died suddenly. I picked off all of the tomatoes, pulled the plant, and planted Beit Alpha cucumber seeds to replace the dead plant. I transplanted some of the sweet potato vines that I…

This was a week of returns and money back. I disputed a purchase on Paypal. In early May, I had ordered some double pink hollyhock seeds from a tiny company (it looked to be owned by an individual). My account was charged right away but I never received an order confirmation nor a shipping notice….

I read a lot of e-books from the library this past week. I forgot to put the ones I read the week before in the previous post, so here are the books I read over the last two weeks: The Actor and The Housewife. I absolutely loved this book. I laughed a lot. I gave…

I started a new schedule this past week to allow me to work in the garden during the coolest part of the day. I get up at 4 :10 a.m. to do laundry and work on the blog, and then go outside at first light around 5 a.m. I work outside until sometime between 6:00…

I made a pair of shorts for my son from the bottom of a pair of worn-out trousers that used to belong to my husband. The fabric in the legs was fine, but the fabric at the top had worn through in a couple of places and was past mending. I used elastic that I…

I harvested apricots, figs, two zucchini, two raspberries(!), blackberries, tomatoes, parsley, and oregano from the garden. I made apricot jam. I dried the parsley, oregano, and lemon verbena to use later. Last year I had to buy parsley and oregano for the first time in years as I didn’t have enough from the garden; now…

I harvested apricots, Swiss chard, blackberries, lettuce, parsley, and tomatoes from the garden. I rarely have lettuce and tomatoes ripe at the same time, but my some of my lettuce that I planted late in March had not bolted yet. My husband and I continued to work on the pergola. It takes two of us…